Okay, Honda fanboys. Prepare your jimmies, they're about to get rustled. In addition to the (supposedly) forthcoming 2015 Acura NSX and the recently greenlit Honda S660 baby roadster, Honda is reportedly preparing an S2000 successor to slot between them — but it will be radically different from the last one.
When the S660 debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show last year, we heard it was the first member of a new family of sports cars from Honda. Now the UK's Auto Express has some details on one of those cars, but it may be best taken with a huge grain of salt.
They report that this "new" S2000 will be mid-engined and all-wheel drive with a version of the 2.0-liter turbo four in the new Honda Civic Type R tuned to produce 350 horsepower.
They also say it should get some hybrid tech from the folks at McLaren, who are sourcing their engines from Honda for next year's Formula One season. The result is a car with a zero to 60 mph time of around five seconds and 40 miles per gallon.
On top of this, the car will carry a more simplified version of the all-wheel drive system from the next NSX. They claim this car could go on sale in 2017 with a price tag of about £35,000, or around $60,000.
How do I feel about this news, if any of it is true? Oh, boy. Where to start.
First, I'm certainly in favor of an S2000 revival, but this shouldn't be it. The S2000 was a bare-bones, stripped out, high strung roadster, a kind of Miata for people who did harder drugs. If it comes back it should stay that way.
Second, and conversely, I am in favor of a car with this setup. The application of Honda's hybrid tech — which I recently found surprisingly impressive on their Accord — in a performance-oriented setting sounds extremely promising. Good gas mileage, sharp handling and electric torque... why the hell not?
Third and finally, I'm extremely skeptical about this report. It all just sounds too damn good to be true, too much from a fanboy's dream journal. Mid-engine? All-wheel drive? Hybrid turbo from the Civic Type R? I'm not saying Honda couldn't do it, I'm just saying it's tough to believe.
I hope they do, though, and more importantly I hope they do it right.